246 Of the proper Improvement SE R M. events remote from themfelves, fuch as dif- X. tant dangers and diftref es, which at the fame time they know muft in the moft fenfible manner affe& thofe who (hare in them ? The moft lively defcription cannot raife fuch paffions, fuch fear and folicitous defire, prompting all the active powers to exert their utmoft force, as if the cafe were our own. In like manner we may think of death in a very unaffeting way, and with- out laying it to our hearts, while it is not applied to ourfelves, and confidered as that which muft very foon make an important change in our own Rate. It is furely of the laft moment for the living to lay death to his heart, in the fenfe now mentioned, be- caufe his religious preparation, confequently his happinefs in a future mate, depends upon it; and it contains fome of the ftrongeft motives to the pra&ice of our duty. But notwithftanding the difference which I have obferved between thinking of death, and laying it to heart fo far, that they may be feparated; yet is the former a proper and a rational, though not always a certainly ef- fetual means of producing the other. We find by experience, that things which do not ftrike our minds very ftrengly at firit view,
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